Rao
by Appadosis Joule
Summary: A sorcerer in a strange land is stealing the souls of powerful mages, and Fai seems a perfect fit for his uses.


Birds sang in the trees, and water in the river gurgled over small pebbles. Small animals played in the grass. It was a beautiful day.

But not to some people. Jan, a small red-headed mage, ignored everything but the magic-seeking pulses. He could not fail his master. Seeking magic-users to capture their powers was stupid, but he couldn't fail unless he wanted to be next.

A warm sensation spread through his left hand, alerting him to the presence of a target. He held the hand up and turned it all around. As it turned to the northwest, it heated up slightly.

"Finally, a hit..." he said, turning and walking in that direction.

He came to a clearing, in which a group of four stood, surveying the area.

Jan pointed his left hand to a young brunet boy, a gangly child with fierce determination in his round amber eyes. No reaction came, so he pointed it to a lanky blond with a permanent unsettling grin and bright blue eyes. A sudden warming came, so intense that Jan's hand nearly burned. He gaped at the hand, thinking of the implications. Powerful magic, so powerful that no one in all of Saladhra had power close to it. Except for maybe his master.

Preparing for his distasteful task, he crossed his forefingers and closed his jade eyes.

"_Para no nii, jimiito la rae ma asa ra Saladhra..._"

XX

Fai stopped talking midsentence, and looked around like a hunted animal. The others followed suit.

"Something's here," the mage whispered. Then, "Down!" as he grabbed Sakura and fell to the ground. As the other two followed, the air warped from a magical energy heading for the group. It struck Fai in the shoulder, tossing him a distance, where he landed hard and lay woefully still. A small blue flash went flying back the way the energy had come, and then all was quiet again.

Sakura was the first one up, and she wasted no time before running to Fai to make certain he was unhurt.

"Fai-san?" she asked, shaking him gently. He didn't answer, so she tried again, shaking him harder. Still no answer. She was about to try again when she noticed that he was too still even to possibly be breathing. She held a hand in front of his mouth. He wasn't. She screamed.

XX

Jan reached out to hold the small blue orb, the visible form of the captured mage's soul.

He cursed softly. He had deliberately aimed the soul-stealing spell near the mage's feet, hoping that he would sense it in time and run, so that he would not be captured. But instead he had dropped to the ground, putting himself in the crosshairs.

"Forgive me," he whispered to the orb, knowing that it could hear him.

"I might forgive you better if you weren't holding me captive," it replied, startling him. None of the other souls had ever spoken to him before, probably due to the trauma of being torn from their bodies.

"It wasn't my idea," Jan said. "Please forgive me."

Fai huffed.

XX

"Fai-san!" Sakura screamed.

"Princess!" Syaoran cried. "Calm down!"

"He's dead!"

"No..."

"He's dead! He's dead!"

"_Sakura!_ Calm down!"

Sakura's tear-filled green eyes met his, and she buried her face in his chest, sobbing.

"What happened here?"

Syaoran and Kurogane turned to see a small woman walking towards them from a nearby road, her eyes fixed on Fai's still form.

"He's dead..." Sakura sobbed.

The woman bent down to examine Fai briefly.

"His soul is gone, but he's alive," she said.

Sakura gave a strangled cry of joy.

"But then what happened?" Syaoran asked. "Why would someone do this?"

"I might know why," she answered."But it's not a story I think I should be telling you..."

"Please!" Sakura begged.

"Oh all right," she sighed. "A few months ago, I found some bodies. They were all like him - their souls were gone. I knew some of them, and every one was a mage. Of varying levels - some only dabbled in magic, others were battle-mages - but every one knew the arts, and I believe that it's more than a coincidence. Someone is stealing the souls of mages. " She paused. "He can control magic?"

"Yes, we believe so. A magic more powerful than simple dabbling," Syaoran said.

"Could you help us find it?" Sakura asked.

"His soul? I am no mage, but I know one who is," the woman said. "His name is Erich."

"Can you take us to him?"

"Of course."

"Then you will help us?"

"Absolutely!"

XX

"And his name?" asked the blond, blue-eyed mage named Erich.

"Fai," Syaoran replied, watching Sakura and Mokona hover protectively over the bed on which Fai's soulless body had been laid.

"Ah. All right, now I don't know if this will work, since I've never tried looking for a soul before, but the spell should technically seek the soul, not the body, anyway." He stretched out a finger.

"_Yumare, yumiru, ana ma ko rae no, la jii mala ana Saladhra..._"

A clear flash of blue sparked from his finger and turned black with a small red symbol.

"No dice," Erich said.

Sakura looked at him desperately, tears welling up in her eyes once more.

"Please!" she cried.

"Wait!" interrupted the young woman who had given her name as Brooke. "I know something that may help. My mother told me to think of home and sing it if I got lost, but an old mage told me that it held seeking magic."

She held a hand over her heart and began a sweet song.

"_Eyo maye, o nii salah,_

_Iye yo ma rie sa ku no._

_Ima ko ba me aka,_

_Mo ro ii to su salah._

_Eyo maye o Saladhra..._"

A spark leapt from her fingertips, a clear blue spark, turning to pure white with a blue symbol.

"It worked!" Erich cried.

"To the north," Brooke said. "_Maye o_, but it is faint..."

"He feels angry," Sakura interrupted from the bed, where she laid a hand on Fai's head. At the others' confused looks, she simply replied, "I just got a feeling just now."

"You know that?" Brooke asked.

"It's just a feeling."

"_Maye o_..." the young woman sighed. "Shall we set out?"

"Can we take Fai?" Mokona asked.

"We shouldn't. He would likely be vulnerable if we do get his soul back, and his captor may decide to just kill him," Erich said.

"Tell you what:you two stay here and keep him company? That way, if he wakes up, you'll be the first ones he sees," Brooke suggested.

"Then you're coming with us?" Syaoran asked.

"We already swore to, remember?" the pair replied.

"Then do you need weapons?"

"No. Do you?"

"No," the young boy replied, glancing at his sword, Hien, and Kurogane's, Sohi.

"Then we are ready."

XX

"Jan," cackled the vicious young man who controlled the mage, "you are a true gem among battle-mages. You have one?"

"Yes, my master. One possessed of a saucy tongue and powerful magics," Jan answered, handing over the orb.

"My, a stubborn one, eh? You'll learn soon enough to keep your tongue from wagging."

"There is nothing you can do to me that will ever hurt me," Fai answered resolutely.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Jan sneered, his voice trembling. Inwardly, he did not want to do this, but his master was too powerful for him to deny.

"Try me."

"Jan," the young man commanded.

Jan nodded and crossed his forefingers.

"_Yumare, yumiru, ata ro nii salah, me an ko Saladhra..._"

A faint gasp came from the orb, and it twitched from side to side. Jan winced, imagining the mental anguish that the spell inflicted.

"Take him to the cages," his master ordered.

"Yes, my master."

XX

"Ah, stop here," Brooke said. Everyone halted immediately.

"It's coming from in there," she said, pointing to the immense stone castle they had stopped near.

"That's..." Erich gasped. "Konyou, the castle of Yumare, the son of our recently deceased king."

"But then that means that Yumare is responsible for all of this," Brooke said.

"Of course...Jan," Erich murmured.

"Jan?"

"_Salah_ Jan Skully is Yumare's personal battle-mage, and the only other occupant of Konyou. He is very powerful, nearly as powerful as Yumare himself," Erich explained. "It's only natural that he would be sent to do the dirty work."

"Can we get in?" Syaoran asked.

"Not manually, but a quick spell should do the trick," the mage replied. With that, he held a finger out and chanted slowly.

"_Gamma o rae ma no siiri jiimito Saladhra..._"

"Hold on!" Brooke cried gleefully, grabbing up a much-surprised Syaoran.

XX

"What..." Syaoran murmured, looking around at the stone walls covered with soft pelts.

"This is Konyou," Erich said.

They heard a quiet whimper from behind a wolf pelt, and a little dark snout peeped out and sniffed curiously. It seemed to not detect danger, so it slipped all the way out.

The group backed away in horror at the sight.

The little animal's belly had been ripped open and the contents strewed about. Its eyes were no more than hollow sockets, and both ears were thin tatters. As it cried, dribbles of blood dripped from its mouth to splatter on the stones.

"_Maye o_, how can it possibly live?" Brooke whispered. It limped towards them on broken legs, crying piteously all the while.

"It isn't alive," Erich replied. It looked at him, and cried louder than ever.

"Wait," Syaoran said. "There are other cries." He turned to Brooke. "Where is he?"

"In the direction of the cries. Come."

They followed her into a room filled with stacks of cages large and small. Nearly every one had an animal in it, and most were watching them.

"Now where?"

"He's in this room... Over there." She pointed towards a pile of empty cages and black cloth. Syaoran rushed over there and dug out the only cage with something in it. He held it up and looked at the little yellow creature that had its back turned to them.

"They infused the soul into a body," Brooke observed. "Yes, that is Fai."

At the mention of his name, Fai turned his head around. Syaoran pulled back a little, and Brooke murmured "_Maye o_..."

The little creature's eyes were gone.

It set up a shrill wail, and Syaoran reached a finger in to stroke its fur. Gradually, its cries slowed to reedy hiccups and it snuggled against his finger.

"Who are you?" came a sharp voice. They all turned around to see a young man standing in the doorway.

"Yumare!" Erich cried. "So, Jan is no longer at your side?"

"The wretch is still here. Koyo told me of the presence of intruders, and I decided to grace you with mine."

"We're so grateful," Erich spat sarcastically.

"Thank you," Yumare replied. "Now die." He flicked a finger out, and sketched a circle with a dot in the center. The air warped, and a shield covered his front.

"Koyo! Myelo! Soran!" he cried, withdrawing. From the other room, a reedy wailing was set up, and three torn and gutted little animals bounded into the room.

"We are the Triumverate. Exult in your last seconds." Koyo, the one that they met in the other room, leapt at Erich, Soran decided to prey on Syaoran, and Myelo went for Kurogane's throat.

It was a pitifully short battle. Myelo went down first, his neck broken and near torn off. Soran was next, with his tiny body crushed by a hard kick and his guts gripped tightly in Syaoran's hand. Koyo was last, his gut ripped open by a blade that seemed to materialize from nowhere.

"Well played!" Yumare cheered, clapping his hands. "But not well enough!" A huge scythe came to his hands from thin air.

Fai started up a racket from within his cage, yowling as if he knew what was happening.

"Your friend knows your doom, I see. Smart animal."

"Wretch! You put him that way! You are no better than the dumb beast that he now is!"

Fai wailed all the more at the chink of metal as Yumare slashed at Erich, only for his weapon to be met by the blade the mage held.

"You, boy," Yumare called to Syaoran, "is it worth doing all of this to regain a friend who is doomed to a life as a dumb beast already?"

"Yes," Syaoran replied without any hesitation. "It's not for my own gain, it's because I care enough not to leave a friend in the hands of someone who would do him harm."

"Admirable, but foolish," Yumare sighed. "Alas, now you must die."

He drew a circle with two streaks to the side and up a little.

"What the-" Brooke cried, leaping aside as a ball of flame fell near her.

The next few minutes were a confused mass of jumps and dodges. As Syaoran leapt away from the last one, Yumare drew a sharp line horizontally, sending a slash towards the boy. It caught him in the chest, throwing him into the heap of empty cages. Fai squealed as he was knocked aside to land on his back. Both lay still.

"Curse you!" came Jan's voice.

"Jan! Kill them, useless pup!" Yumare cried.

Jan looked at Syaoran, then into Brooke's eyes, then at Fai's pleading expression. "No, Yu," he said.

"Oh, come now, Jan, if you wanted to kill me, you would have done it before you stole all those souls and imbued me with their magic powers," Yumare cajoled.

"I never said I would kill you. Did I ever tell you that I linked your power to my life? That's right - if I die, you lose it all."

"Wretch! You're bluffing! If that was true, you never would have gone along!"

"It's all true. You see, my 'master', there is something humans have called a survival instinct. I saved it as a last resort, in case you went too far, and now you have. You claim that mages are destroying this world, but then why take the magic onto yourself? You say that mages are self-centered and proud, but then why is Erich here, helping complete strangers? And why did I see what I saw in the heart of this mage, that I stole the soul of? Why is he helping a child he hardly knows? I'll tell you the answer: because they care. Because they're not self-centered. _Because they're human. _

"Kill me if you like, I don't care anymore. I just want to get away from you."

Yumare's hands were clenched tightly in rage. He knew that Jan really wouldn't care, even if he did kill him.

"Curse you!" he screamed, whirling his scythe and ramming the tip through Jan's chest. The red-headed mage's condemning look never faltered, remaining until his jade eyes closed and he died.

A blinding flash forced them all to close their eyes, and when they opened them again, Yumare was visibly weaker.

"You weaklings will still be easy to kill!" he cackled, swinging the scythe.

It was nearly as pitiful a battle as the one with the Triumverate. The prince knew that he couldn't use his magic anymore, so he leapt at Kurogane, his scythe slashing furiously. He only realized what a bad choice that was a second before Sohi took his head off.

"'S it over?" Syaoran mumbled, pulling himself up and wiping blood from a newly split lip.

"Yes," Brooke answered. "It is gone now. Our mission is complete."

XX Epilogue

Sakura's sleep was abruptly interrupted by a slight shifting. She lifted her head from where it had been resting on Fai's hip, to find him laying on his face in his usual sleeping position. Her breath caught in her throat.

He had moved!

"Fai-san!" she shouted, leaping on him to give him a hug and startling him awake. Staring over her shoulder, he accepted the hug, patting her on the back reassuringly.

"Where are Syaoran-kun and the others?" he asked her when she had let go, even though he already knew.

"They went out," she answered.

"Fai!" Mokona cried as it toddled in.

"Sorry to worry you, Mokona."

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked.

"A little dizzy and tired, but nothing to worry about." He lay back on the bed. "So can you be quiet and let me sleep?"

"Of course."

XX

Fai glanced around at the pitch black surroundings. In the distance, he saw a small form with a spray of bright red hair.

"Jan!" he cried.

"Fai!" the mage returned.

"Why did you come here? And where is here?"

"You're dreaming. We're in dreams. I had something I needed to tell you before I left."

"What?"

"Beware that boy, Syaoran. Some day, half of what you saw this day will return to you in a land of burning rain."

"What?"

"I cannot tell you directly, nor can I tell you more. It is simply forbidden. Farewell."

"Wait-!"

But then Jan was gone.


End file.
